Radical Father, Radical Son: Part 2

Dear Friends,

When I began to study Torah, I discovered
the spiritual roots of my father’s social
concerns. For example, my father was active
in unions that were struggling to achieve
fair wages and decent working conditions in
an era when workers were often exploited by
their employers. My father’s activism helped
me to greatly appreciate the following
mitzvah which requires the prompt payment of
a hired worker:

“You shall pay his hire on its day; the sun
shall not set upon him, for he is poor, and
his life depends upon it; let him not call
out against you to the Compassionate One,
for a sin would be upon you.” (Deuteronomy
24:15)

As Maimonides explains in his Book of
Mitzvos (#200), this mitzvah applies to both
Jewish and non-Jewish workers. In addition,
one who fails to pay the laborer's salary
when it is due violates the following
prohibition:

“Do not withhold that which is due to your
neighbor, and you shall not steal; the wages
earned by a day laborer shall not remain
overnight with you until the morning.”
(Leviticus 19:13)

“You shall not steal.” Citing the Talmud,
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains that
this phrase is teaching us that one who
withholds the wages of a worker - even
temporarily - is also violating the Torah's
prohibition against stealing.

The various mitzvos of the Torah regarding
the just treatment of workers reinforced
among our people the Torah principle of
social justice. In fact, when Jewish
radicals tried to organize unions among
Jewish workers who immigrated to America in
the early 20th century, the radicals often
appealed to the religious sentiments of
these workers who had grown up in the
Torah-observant communities of Eastern
Europe. Irving Howe, in his book about the
life of Jewish immigrants on the Lower East
Side of New York, cites a fascinating
example which was recorded by Abraham Cahan,
the Editor of the Forward, a Yiddish,
socialist, newspaper. Cahan told of visiting
a Torah-study class of striking vestmakers
and hearing one of them proclaim:

“Ours is a just cause. It is for the bread
of our children that we are struggling. We
want our rights and we are bound to get them
through the union. Saith the Law of Moses:
‘Thou shalt not withhold anything from your
neighbor nor rob him; there shall not abide
with thee the wages of him that is hired
through the night until morning.’ So it
stands in Leviticus. So you see that your
bosses who rob us and don't pay us regularly
commit a sin, and that the cause of our
union is a just one.” (“World of Our
Fathers” by Irving Howe, page 112)

My father’s union activism also helped me to
appreciate the following stories about Rav
Aharon Kotler, a leading 20th
century sage:

1. Before World War II, Rav Aharon served as
the Rosh Yeshiva (head) of Yeshiva Etz
Chaim in Kletsk, a town in Poland, on the
border with Russia. The following are
excerpts from a story regarding the
construction of the yeshiva building, which
is told by Reb Shmuel Teitzmaller:

I remember well when the decision was made
to erect a building for Yeshiva Etz Chaim of
Kletsk. The entire town became caught up in
the excitement. It was like a Yom Tov
(festival) in the streets. My own family had
a special zchus (merit) in the
project. We were the builders in town, a
family with a long history in the
bricklaying business, and it would be our
job to construct the edifice.

…I will never forget the devotion with which
my great uncle Hershik, already an old man,
plunged into the work. Sometimes as I passed
him by during the day, I would hear him
mumbling to himself. “It’s a makom kodosh!
(holy place),” he would say, lips
trembling with emotion.

…The Yeshiva approach when it came to
employee relations and compensation for
labor was another aspect of the sanctity
with which the building was imbued. The Rosh
Yeshiva made it a habit of visiting the
building site each day after Shacharis
(Morning Prayers) just to greet us: “Good
Morning!” he would say and bless us that we
should succeed.

One day, I was engaged in animated
conversation with the foreman of the project
as Rav Aharon approached. “Reb Shmuel,” he
said to me, using the honorific “Reb” even
though I was just a bochur (youth),
“What’s the matter?”

“Rebbe,” the foreman answered, before I had
a chance to say anything, “There’s not
enough money to pay everyone. What should we
do?”

Rav Aharon’s face instantly turned pale. He
turned toward the foreman, and with a deep,
pained sigh gave his reply:

“Schor Yom – a day’s wages! You may
not withhold a day’s wages even overnight!
If we do not have the money to pay our
workers, we do not build.”

The building, of course, was completed in
the end, and Kletsk became known as a
citadel of Torah.

2. The following story about his concern for
workers took place after the war, when Rav
Aharon was the Rosh Yeshiva of the Lakewood
Yeshiva, in Lakewood, New Jersey (U.S.A).
This story also serves as an example of how
the Torah principle of kovod habrios
– human dignity - encompassed all his
actions. The story is told by Rav Binyamin
Finkelstein, who served as a driver for Rav
Aharon when Rav Binyamin was a student at
the yeshiva:

It is well-known that when automatic
tollbooths first came out, the Rosh Yeshiva
would direct the driver to the manned ones,
because of kovod habrios. (Some lanes
had manned tollbooths and other lanes had
automatic tollbooths.)

“The roads weren’t crowded as they are
today,” said Rabbi Finkelstein, and as they
pulled up, the Rosh Yeshiva told him, “The
man is standing there, how can you pass him
up and go to a machine! Firstly, it’s not
kavod habriyos. Secondly, the more that
people will use the machine, the less they
will need men, and this will cause people to
lose their jobs!”

The above stories appear in “The Legacy of
Maran Rav Aharon Kotler” by Rabbi Yitzchok
Dershowitz. This amazing and inspiring book
is about the life and teachings of one of
the great spiritual leaders of our people
during the 20th century. This
book also introduces us to the beauty,
depth, and idealism of the yeshiva world. It
is one of the most spiritually powerful
books I have ever read. “The Legacy of Maran
Rav Aharon Kotler” is published by Feldheim:
www.feldheim.com
.

Shalom,

Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen (See below)

Related Teachings:

The Chofetz Chaim discusses various aspects
of the mitzvah to pay workers promptly in
his book “Ahavath Chesed” - Loving Kindness.
For example:

1. An employee hired for the day must be
paid before sunset or at least before
nightfall. If an employee is hired by the
week or month, the employer is obligated to
pay him before nightfall on the last day of
that week or month. This obligation also
applies to paying minors who were hired for
any work.

2. An employer should never hire a worker
when he knows for sure that he will be
unable to pay on time, unless he notified
the worker beforehand and the worker
accepted his terms, or else the local usage
is to pay workers on certain market days.

3. If you give someone an article to repair,
you are obligated to pay on the day it is
returned to you. The obligation to pay
promptly applies to anyone whom you hired to
do a service for you, including a driver of
a coach, or in our day, a cab.

4. This obligation also applies when renting
an item or an apartment from someone; thus,
it is a mitzvah to pay one's rent on time.

In the preface to the Chofetz Chaim's book,
“Ahavath Chesed,” there is a discussion of
how mitzvos need to be performed with "kavanah"
- intention or consciousness - rather than
by rote. For example, before paying a
laborer, a tailor, or the driver of a taxi,
one should have in mind that he is
fulfilling the mitzvah of our Creator Who
instructed us to pay a worker on time.

The Chofetz Chaim also gives the following
advice to any business person or worker who
is providing others with a service: Have in
mind each day that, in addition to making a
living, you are fulfilling the mitzvah of
doing acts of lovingkindness to others. In
this way, one's livelihood becomes
transformed into a central mitzvah of the
Torah.

When we become aware that our mundane
activities are potential mitzvos, then we
can transform our daily activities into a
loving service of the Creator and all
creation.